


Mary Mary Quite Contrary

by snowynight



Category: Ballad of Mona Lisa (Music Video)
Genre: Character Study, Dark, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Retelling, Women Being Awesome, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-21
Updated: 2011-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-27 16:25:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/297779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowynight/pseuds/snowynight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once Mary walked the rules. Now she doesn't</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mary Mary Quite Contrary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChokolatteJedi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/gifts).



> Thanks to my beta and Yule chat!

At the wake, everyone had been paying condolence to her. The older people held her hands, with their mind in the space between memory and mist; the younger women surveyed the body while offered to stay with her for comfort; the men nodded at her. She kept her face fixed in a mask of proper grief, head low, in the proper mourning attire, with her mind sharp as a knife.

 

No one knew. Everything had happened, was happening and would happen again. They were acting according to the man’s will unknowingly, bounded forever in his song. They slavishly followed the Rules, thinking the Rules could save them, but in fact the Rules just served to restrict their mind, their heart and their spirit.

 

She had been one of them, blind to the reality, foolishly relying on a fake sense of stability. She married her husband, had a nice house and friends, and she thought she would have a "happy ever after" ending.

 

That was, until the day she broke the Rules and saw the real world.

  
She didn’t quite remember what caused her to stray. There were so many rules, but no one remembered why they needed to conduct the ritual. They all just followed them blindly, including her. People were as accustomed to the rules as the house plants were to their pots They could not imagine a world without Rules. Evil would befall those that didn’t obey, people whispered. Some people still gossiped about a certain Alice who broke the Rules and was never seen again. Emily, whom had been carted to asylum for her unbalanced mind, was said to have been a rule-breaker too.

  
But one day Mary found a book in her house’s basement and read a page too many, which led her to think something she shouldn’t have, leading her to a room with yellow wallpaper that she should never have entered.

  
Finally, she saw Mona Lisa.

  
She still had nightmare of the inhuman state in which she'd found Mona Lisa. She could barely believe how someone could survive like that. Her first instinct, to be honest, was to scream.

  
When she had suppressed the scream, she tried to calm down and found out how to help her. The woman was trapped to something barely resembling the love child of an iron maiden and a wheel that she saw in some martyrs' pictures. Surely she could do something…

  
Then the woman whispered, “It was useless.”

  
“Who are you?”

  
“They call me Mona Lisa.”

  
“Are… are you dying? Don’t speak any more. I’ll get…”

  
“I’m always dying.” Then she paused and said, “Your husband's coming. Don’t let he find you.”

  
“How do you…”

  
“Don’t speak anymore. Stay there. If you don’t speak or move, he won’t see you.”

  
Mary felt a soft wind pulling her to a hole – When did it appear? Then she heard her husband Elijah’s footsteps approaching. She tried to roll herself into a ball and did not dare speak.

  
When her husband came in, he looked different. No longer the charming gentleman she was used to, and even his smile brought fear to her heart.

  
“I’m glad to see you well, Mona Lisa,” Elijah said

  
“I can’t say I can return the sentiment.”

  
“Come on, you should happy with what you brought to the world.”

 

“When will you get tired with this?”

 

"You will find I can be a very patient man."

 

Finally Elijah left. Mary asked Mona Lisa what it had meant, and she only said, “Go to the Chapel.”

  
“You meant… which one?”

  
“I see. It became a Rule. Now follow the directions…”

  
Mary sneaked out that night, following Mona Lisa’s directions and found the Chapel she had spoken of. Why did she never notice it? It was in the town all along!

  
When she carefully pushed open the door and looked at the dust-stained benches. She saw an old hat and picked it up.

  
Then she remembered.

  
The town hadn’t like this before. The Rules hadn’t always been in place. But the man with hat had brought his entourage to the town, seduced the people, occupied the place, ruled them, and wiping their memory.

  
But how did Mona Lisa fit into the puzzle?

  
She tried to remember. Then she recalled that Mona Lisa look exactly like the bride which wedding the man had interrupted, if her face was well and unscarred. And in fact, when she thought further, Mona Lisa bore a striking resemblance to Emily and Alice, who she now remembered had once lived with them. Emily, the loyal lonely daughter. Alice, the innocent curious girl.

  
Her eyes were wide open. What if…

  
Finally, she made a decision. She would save the town, at all cost.

 

Soon, everything was going to end.

 

When she saw the glint in her husband's eyes, she knew who he really was. He might pretend to be a normal person, but she remembered.

 

She remembered the wedding that started everything. The chapel might have been forgotten and locked away, but Mary remembered.

 

And she had planned ever since. He never saw it coming, or so she'd thought.  
She lowered her head so the others wouldn’t notice her glare when they conducted the Rules.

Rule 1: Open the window  
Rule 2: Close the window after 2 hours.  
Rule 3: Stop All clocks and cover all mirrors.  
Rule 4: Bathe the body.  
Rule 5: Lay the body in white.  
…  
But it was to be the last time the Rules were conducted. She would make sure of it.  
That a little girl was used as a tool to destroy her plan... the irony didn't escape her notice.

People were too glad to accept the little girl’s accusation. They all assumed she had fled out of guilt. Afterward, the men smiled and slapped one another on the back. They had brought the crime to justice. Mary knew death awaited her, but when no one was watching, she secretly smiled.

"Whoa Mona Lisa, you’re guaranteed to run this town / Whoa Mona Lisa I’d pay to see you frown/… There’s nothing wrong with just a taste of what you paid for..." Elijah sang.

But I won freedom, Mary thought.


End file.
